It is usually difficult to decide when one historical period
begins and another ends, as there a rarely any clear demarcation points. Therefore,
the historian's choice of a starting date for this or that era is to some extent
arbitrary, and it is no different in this case. Nevertheless, I feel that 1863
is a good place with which to begin to talk about the modern Post Office. In
that year, Congress authorized city free delivery of mail, which would have
a profound effect on the population of the United States. This action was followed
up by two more important events in 1864--the creation of Postal money orders
(which I will not discuss in this web essay but is nonetheless important) and
establishment of the first railroad post offices [2m].

During the Victorian period, the Postal Service played a key
role in helping to transform the United States from a collection of local communities
to a true nation state. The agency was only able to perform significant cultural
work because it found ways to efficiently deliver vast amounts of correspondence
to millions of patrons who were scattered over an enormous landmass. The Post
Office’s success was the result of its willingness to expand its infrastructure
and hire the employees necessary to meet the needs of its customers, which were
made up of private citizens and businesses. As important, the Postal Department
took advantage of new methods of transportation that were coming of age in postbellum
America.

Rural free deliveryman

Mailcarrier (1895)

After the Civil War, the Postal Service expanded quickly. As a measure ofof this rapid growth,
the number of post offices grew from around 28,500 in 1860 to over 62,000 in
1890 [3m]. The government agency had employed only 27,000 people in 1828, but
that figure had jumped to more than 150,000 only sixty years later [4m]. By
1900, the nation's mail system included an area that stretched from the east
coast of the United States to Hawaii [5m]. By increasing the number of its post
offices and workers, the Postal Department could meet its goals of providing
quality service to all Americans. Its establishment of city free delivery in
1863 (picture on right [6m]) and rural free delivery (RFD) in 1893 (picture
on left [7m]) furthered these aims (for more information on these two topics,
see the Building Communities through Routinization and Standardization
section of this website).

In addition to expanding its service, the Post Office took
steps to ensure speedier and more efficient delivery of the mail. One way it
accomplished this feat was to take advantage of the surge in railroad development
which occurred in postbellum America. The Postal Service had used steamships
since the early 1800s to help it move correspondence from one American locality
to another [For more information on the Post Office's use of steamships, see
section entitled,The Early Years (1775-1862)]. However, steamships
had an obvious drawback in that they could only travel through sections of the
country with navigable rivers. Another one of their limitations was their lack
of speed, the fastest steamboats traveled at around fifteen to twenty miles
an hour [8m]. On the other hand, trains averaged between 30 or 40 miles an hour
and tracks could be built over most terrains [9m].

Coastal Port linking railway
and steamboat lines

The Postal Service first began contracting with
railroads to carry mail in the 1830s. It cost the agency more to use this service,
but it greatly increased the speed at which the Post Office could transmit mail
in areas serviced by train lines [10m]. After 1860, the railroads grew exponentially.
"Total national mileage" expanded from around 35,000 miles in 1860
to almost 200,000 miles in 1890. The Postal Department took advantage of this
fact and by 1870 was shipping more mail by train than by all other means combined
[11m]. As the picture on the right [12m] shows, the agency harnessed the power
of steamboats and trains in whatever combination was required to decrease the
time it took to deliver a letter from one locality to another.

Railway Post Office workers

The Post Office did not simply rely on new methods of transportation to speed
up deliveries of mail in postbellum America, the agency adopted (or was forced
by Congress to adopt) a range of new services and techniques from 1863 through
1910 which decreased delivery times and at the same time increased the likelihood
that the correspondence would reach its objective. One important such innovation
was the establishment of the first railroad post offices in 1864 (picture on left
of Railway Post Office men in action) [13m]. The impact of these traveling facilities
is attested to by Wayne Fuller in his book, The American Mail: Enlarger of
the Common Life: "The railroad post office was regarded as one of the
wonders of the age…It allowed postal agents to do much of [the] sorting
and distributing of mail...on the train…Before their establishment, distributing
offices had been located here and there across the country...[14m]." Other
measures, such as the department's use of “expensive machines to cancel
stamps” and its offering of rewards for "the capture and conviction
of mail robbers" increased the safety and speed of mail delivery [15m].
During the decades after 1860, the Post Office had enlarged and improved its mail system
to the point to the point that by 1900, a postal historian could exclaim without
a hint of insincerity that,

The people of the United States can justly take great
pride in the postal system which they have established. The organization of
the Post-office Department extends over a vast continental territory, throughout
which there is practically no community too small and no hamlet too remote from
the great centers of population, or from the ordinary means of transportation,
to receive regular and reliable mail service [16m].

Child putting letter in mailbox, circa 1910

The growth of the Postal Service
coincided with the transformation of the United States from an agrarian based
economy to an industrial one. The Industrial Revolution's impact on society
is well documented and does not need further elaboration here. It is important
to note that a byproduct of the machine age was an ever increasing volume of
correspondence. The Post Office also fostered the growth in the number of pieces
of mail circulating through its system each year by keeping its postage rates
low and by introducing postcards (see other sections of this website for information
on postcards and citations) which allowed men and women to send messages at
the cost of one penny a card. The agency’s efforts to achieve a relatively
high level of efficiency and speed in the sorting and handling of the nation’s
mail also helped spur the growth.

As a result of all of these factors, the number of pieces correspondence being
handled by the Post Office increased dramatically in the decades after the Civil
War. As an example, in 1850, Americans received an average of five letters each
year. By 1900, that number had increased by almost 1900% to around 94 pieces
of mail per person [17m]. This fact insured that the Postal Service would play
a large role in connecting the hearts and minds of citizens of all income levels
and ethnic persuasions (picture on right of boy reaching for mailbox--circa
1910 [18m]).

Perhaps the most obvious way in which the Postal Service helped
bring disparate sections of postbellum American together was by its contributions,
both direct and indirect, to the development of a quality, national transportation
infrastructure. The Postal Department's policies concerning post routes [discussed
in the section entitled, The Early Years (1775-1862)]
encouraged the building of roads throughout the United States which linked states
to each other [19m]. Railway companies and steamship lines also benefited monetarily
from the needs of the Post Office. In 1860 alone, before the railroads became
the primary carrier of the nation's mail, the Postal Service paid out $3,349,662
to railway companies [20m]. However, during the Victorian period, the Post Office
touched people in ways that are not quite so obvious but as important.

One obvious way in which the Postal Service served as a nationalizing
force was in its role as intermediary between families and friends who lived
far apart from one another. Correspondence between for instance parents and
their children helped to form vital social links that transcended state or local
boundaries. It is likely that in many cases, these pieces of mail would also
serve to educate the readers about events going on in another part of the country
and in this way widen their view of reality. The letters that immigrants to
the United States in the late 1800s sent home to their families provides a case
in point. In 1889, the Post Office handled 87 million letters between America
and Europe--a 2200 percent increase since the early 1860s. In these messages,
the recent arrivals to the U.S. not only wrote about themselves but also provided
information about the U.S. in general, thereby disseminating aspects of American
culture into the homes of their relatives living in Germany, Ireland, or any
of a myriad of foreign countries [21m]. The educational process was no different
with per say, someone in rural Wisconsin writing home to his or her parents
in New York City.

Grant & Colfax campaign postcard from the 1868 Presidential Election

Fraternal and political organizations relied on the Postal Service to help
them build national communities. By utilizing this cheap and efficient means
of communication, these groups could reach thousands or even millions living
in all areas of the United States. They were helped even further by the introduction
of post cards. First used in the United States in 1861, these cards, which only
cost one cent to send through the mail after 1872, were the "poor man's
greeting card [22m]. They were also the “poor,” non-profit’s
greeting card. By using postal cards, organizations could mail pertinent information
and offers of membership to those living outside of their base of operations
relatively cheaply (the image on the right is a campaign, postcard sent out
by Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax, Republican nominees for President and
Vice-President in the 1868 election [23m]).

After the Civil War, the growth of magazines and newspapers
skyrocketed. For instance, in just a twenty year span, from 1885 through 1905,
"…the number of magazines in the nation...almost doubled [24m]."
At the same time, print organizations began to develop a "mass national
audience [25m]." This development had a profound effect on the United States.
It helped create nationwide communities who were united by the fact that they
all possessed the same information. Further, their knowledge was not derived
from elite within their community as often as it was obtained from scholars
who lived several states away [26m]. Regardless of whether people lived in the
city or in some remote part of rural America, they could keep in touch with
the major political struggles occurring in Washington, D.C. as well as gain
insight into the workings of the country's economy or learn about the newest
scientific achievements [27m].

Harper's Weekly cover from January 6, 1877

The print media's growth during the postbellum years was due
to several factors including "...improved methods of manufacturing paper,
printing, and photengraving...[28m]." As important to these publications'
development of national subscription lists were the "...cheaper mailing
rates established by Congress in 1879 [29m]. This coupled with the postal benefits
the magazines and newspapers had enjoyed since 1794 [for information on Postal
discounts to newspapers and magazines, see The Early Years (1775-1862)] helped
foster the development of nationwide communities built around the articles in
a prominent journal or daily. The Postal Service also aided the growth of the
magazine and newspaper industries in the Victorian period (picture on right--cover
of the January 1877 issue of Harper's Weekly [30m]) by its ability
to quickly and efficiently provide mail service to the majority of Americans
living in both rural and urban America (though until the advent of rural free
delivery, farmers would have to go into town to pick-up their mail).

1903 edition of RFD NEWS from 1903

Perhaps even more significant in the dissemination of knowledge
on a nationwide scale, the Postal Service instituted city free delivery service
in 1863 and extended it to all towns of 10,000 or more in 1887. The Post Office
accorded the same benefits to those living in the country with its establishment
of rural free delivery service in 1896 (for more information on these two postal
innovations, refer to Building National Communities Through
Routinization and Standardization) [31m]. By making deliveries free of charge
to their residences, the Post Office made it easier for people, especially those
living in sparsely populated areas, to get their mail on a regular basis, thereby
making it more beneficial to purchase subscriptions to weeklies and dailies.
The significance of the Post Office's role in aiding the growth of national
communities based on shared knowledge is shown by the political cartoon (picture
on right) from a 1903 issue of RFD News [32m].

Victorian era postcard of New York City(?) post office

During the Victorian era, the Postal Service was influential
in disseminating knowledge to Americans through its backing of postcards. As
I have already shown, organizations used these postal cards as part of their
campaign to develop a national following. Postcards could also convey didactic
messages. Many of these small pieces of cardboard (or some other, similar material),
like the one shown on the right [33m], served as mini history lessons by providing
the reader with a glimpse of a historic building or a vignette describing a
past event of supposed important historical importance. Other cards conveyed
patriotic messages or national ideals. In their various forms, postcards helped
inform enormous numbers of Americans about the larger world in which they lived
[34m]. The influence of postal cards is attested to by the fact that in 1909,
968 million of them "were mailed in the United States [35m]."

Stamp commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence
(iss. 1869)

Stamp from the Columbian Exposition series (iss. 1893)

While the Post Office had asignificant
impact on the growth of the print media and postcard industries, its influence
was only indirect. It did not own the magazines and newspapers and even when
the Postal Service controlled the postcard industry (in the early 1870s), it
could not determine what its customers would write on these cards [36m]. That
is not the case when it comes to stamps. The nation’s mail agency directly
handled the sale of these pieces of adhesive paper, whose small size deterred
individuals from writing on their surface. An 1855 act had made the "prepayment
of postage... mandatory [37m]." By 1900, this meant that Americans, on
average, would come into contact with over a hundred stamps a year if only for
brief periods at a time. Further, it is likely that people purchased stamps
in bulk like they do today and kept them around the house or apartment until
they were ready to use them, thereby insuring that the stamps were always nearby.

Benjamin Franklin stamp

Stamp of Andrew Jackson (iss. 1883)

Millions of Americans living in the Victorian Period thus came into routine contact with postage stamps. More importantly,
these people were exposed to the images on the front of these small pieces of
adhesive paper. If pictures can say a thousand words, then the stamps were instrumental
in informing immigrants about historical events of national importance (or at
least those occurrences that the Postal Service considered to be significant).
Postage stamps became in essence tiny history lessons on everything from the
signing of the Declaration of Independence (pictured above right [38m]) to the
landing of Columbus (pictured above left [39m]). Some of them informed recent
arrivals to America about prominent figures in the country's past such as Andrew
Jackson (pictured right [40m]) and Benjamin Franklin (pictured left [41m]).
The stamps did not come equipped with much explanatory text; however, they provided
a framework for understanding United States history, albeit a tenuous and incomplete
one. The newly arrived could then pour other information they learned into this
mental skeleton and eventually develop a viable, working comprehension of their
adopted nation's history.

Postage stamps also performed cultural work in regards to the majority of the
American population who had not recently immigrated to the United States. Most
of these people, whether living in the populous Eastern states or in the most
desolate portions of the Western plains, possessed at least a modicum of knowledge
on United States history. For these men and women, the images on the stamps
served as constant reminders of these past events. Each time that farmers in
Nebraska or miners in West Virginia licked and pasted stamps of American icons
such as Benjamin Franklin or Andrew Jackson, these individuals were confronted
with the fact, if only on a subconscious level, that they were part of a larger
community, which had been in existence for generations (how many depended on
one's conception of terms like nation and community) [42m].

No American transformation was more remarkable than these new American ways
of changing things from objects of possession...into vehicles of community...Nearly
all objects from the hats and suits and shoes men wore to the food they ate
became symbols and instruments of novel communities....
And there were created many communities of consumers. Men who never saw or
knew one another were held together by their common use of objects so similar
that they could not be distinguished even by their owners. These consumption
communities were quick; they were nonideological; they were democratic; they
were public...Never before had so many men been united by so many things [45m].

The Postal Service was instrumental in creating these consumption
communities.

Ad page from Harper's Weekly (1877)

This transformation in American culture could not have taken
place without advertising. It goes without saying that businesses needed to
find ways to market their products to a wide range of potential consumers who
lived in areas separated by perhaps thousands of miles if they were going to
build national consumer bases [46m]. One way in which organizations could publicize
their products was by taking out ads in newspapers and magazines. As an example,
the picture on the right represents an ad page from an 1877 edition of Harper's
Weekly. As these forms of printed media increased in scope and size, they
provided ever larger markets for those who had advertising contracts with them.
After 1885, in part because of cheap postage rates which helped keep the cost
of magazine ads reasonable and in part out of recognition of these publications'
fast growing popularity, the "...nation's larger businesses who sought
a national market took over their own publicity and began advertising in the
old standard magazines [47m]." As shown in Forming National
Communities Based on Knowledge and Ideas, the Postal Service was instrumental
in aiding the growth of weeklies, dailies, monthlies, and other similar types
of press.

Victorian era postacard ad for Cornish & Co.

Postcard ad promoting a biography of Buffalo Bill

In 1873, Congress authorized the use of postcards and set the price
for their postage at once cent regardless of distance traveled [48m]. Because
of their inexpensive nature, postcards became a popular vehicle for the mass
marketing goods and services. Businesses could postcards, which hawked their
particular product, to thousands of potential customers living in disparate
parts of the nation for relatively small amounts of money [49m]. And this form
of advertising may have in fact been more effective than other types if for
no other reason than Victorian Americans received less than one hundred pieces
of mail per year, so they had time to give personal attention to each letter
or postcard that arrived in their mailbox [50m]. The popularity of these postcards
as a type of advertising are indicated by the pictures (right, left, and below
[51m]).

Victorian era Americans found themselves becoming linked together
by their adherence to standards and routines. By 1910, a majority of people
living in the United States adhered to the same system for keeping time, wore
clothing, which conformed to national standards for length and girth, used government
issued coins of set value to buy their goods, and relied on standardized measurements
when building homes or marchinery. This aspect of postbellum culture separated
it from any society that had come before it and provided a major impetus to
the growth of the American nation state [52m]. The Postal Service played a role
in fostering the populace's acceptance of a standardization and routinization.

One of the stamps in the Columbian Exposition
series (iss. 1893)

The Postal Service helped create a unified America based on
standards and routines by establishing non-negotiable charges for mailing correspondence.
The Post Office's rates were set in stone unless changed by the Postmaster General
or by Congress. So, at least ideally, people living in the United States, regardless
of their class status or their location, were linked together by the fact that
they all knew or should know the exact amount of cash that it would take to
mail a postcard or a one ounce package, and so forth. Further, even if these
men and women did not know the price offhand, they realized that it would not
go up or down depending on where they were in the nation. The ten cent stamp
(pictured to the right [53m]) would procure the same services at any post office
in the nation.

Washington, D.C. letter carriers (circa 1900)

San Francisco mailcarriers (1894)

The Postal Service took several steps between 1863 and 1910
to regularize more than its charges for carrying letters and postcards. In 1868,
the agency authorized the use of standard uniforms, which insured that every
postal delivery man and woman under its direct control (the Post Office often
subcontracted out its routes in sparsely populated portions of the nation in
order to save money) would dress in similar attire. As an example, notice that
the similarity in the dress of the mailmen in the photograph on the right, who
worked in Washington, D.C. (circa 1900 [54m]), and those in the picture on the
left who were stationed in San Francisco, California (1894 [55m]). Americans
in every section of the country, regardless of their other differences, came
to see Postal employees less as unique individuals and more as a representatives
of a national, government agency. As important, it is likely that these people
came to expect the men and women wearing the Postal Department uniforms to maintain
a professional demeanor when on the job. In other words, the postal uniforms
served the same purpose as a modern day store warranty. Regardless of the veracity
of this statement, it is quite true that men and women in Victorian America
formed communities, albeit weak, based on their shared assumptions concerning
postal uniforms.

Victorian era mailcarrier running his daily route

In 1863, The Postal Service provided free delivery to cities of more than 50,000 people.
In 1887 Congress amended the law and allowed "...the postmaster general
to establish free delivery in towns of 10,000 where postal revenues were at
least $10,000 a year. Better still, the postmaster general could, at his own
discretion, extend the service to even smaller towns… [56m].” In
1893, the plan was extended on an experimental basis to rural areas and then
made permanent in 1902. By 1910, the number of miles of RFD routes had risen
from nothing before 1893 to 993,068 miles [57m]. Taking into account the number
of pieces of mail that each person received per annum (94 pieces per person
and 188 pieces per couple), the sight of the mail carrier on a road became a
routine, every day occurrence. And usually, at least in the rural districts
which were serviced by a limited number of letter carriers, the same postal
employee would travel a certain route for years or even decades delivering mail
to that area’s residents. Americans, if they concurred on nothing else,
were united by their cognizance of and participation in this daily ritual [58m]
(picture at right is of a mail carrier walking his route, 1890 [59m].

Perhaps the most significant contribution that the Victorian era Postal Service
made towards creating a nation state lay in the fact that it maintained a public presence in the localities
that is serviced. Its buildings, employees,
and even the wagons and trains that carried the mail became symbols of national
authority and legitimacy. Wayne Fuller, a noted postal historian, makes the
same observations.

Beyond this, the postal service made the national
government visible to every man, woman, and child in the nation...True, the
Post Office did not always present a favorable image of the government, but
this did not necessarily diminish its value as a bond of union. And if the rickety
stagecoach that carried the mail, the forlorn building that served as a post
office, and the slovenly postrider who plodded along the country roads with
the mail were unimpressive, still they were representatives of the national
government and reminders to the people of its presence in their midst [60m].

The most notable symbols were the letter carriers themselves (pictured above
left and above right [61m]) with their distinctive uniforms. They stood out
in the community and therefore served as the most prominent "reminders" of the
existence of the federal government.

These letter carriers also served as symbols of national authority and legitimacy.
While uniform styles changed from time to time during the decades after the
Civil War, the cap or helmet in some form or another was a staple of mail carriers--at
least those working in cities or large towns [62m]. As is obvious from the pictures
above, the helments (and probably the caps as well) resembled those worn by
police officers and other law enforcement agencies [63m]. By requiring its letter
carriers to wear these hats, the Postal Service made a public statement about
the national government's power. This message was repeated each time the mail
carrier delivered a letter.

First RFD carriers in Lebanon, TN

Even if the postal workers did not wear caps or helmets, they were still required
to wear badges [64m]. Even those who worked the rural routes, as did the early
RFD carriers pictured to the right [65m], had to have a badge publicly displayed.
It appears that most postal workers placed their badges on their hats. The badges,
like the helmets and caps, acted as symbols of national authority. Few people
could escape noticing the fact that their letter carrier's badge looked like
the ones worn by the local magistrates. Some of the badge types are shown below
[66m].

Postal Badges

Victorian era post office in New York

Post office in Albany, NY

In large cities, the Postal Service's main office often served
as a striking symbol of American power. Many of these immense buildings, like
the two pictured here (one on the left and one on the right [67m]), towered
several stories into the air and covered thousands of square feet of land.
Their ornate architectures gave further indication of the power and wealth of
their owner--the United States government. One or more, large American flags
flew from their enormous rooftops and many other U.S. flags were often perched
on the sides of the buildings. A man or woman who visited one of these structures
to mail a letter or to buy stamps could not avoid noticing the size and majesty
of these structures, and by association of the power of the Post Office and
its parent, the federal government.

The Postal Service issued a number of postage stamps between 1863 and 1910 which
emphasized the power and legitimacy of the federal government. While the stamps in and
of themselves did not necessarily focus Americans' minds on the national government
as opposed to their local or state legislatures, the small pieces of adhesive
paper did serve to remind its purchasers that the government in Washington D.C.
was vested with authority to govern the nation and represented its public face
vis-a-vis foreign countries. When looking at the mattter from this angle, the
Victorian era stamps of President Garfield (pictured left [68m]) and of soldiers
guarding a wagon train (pictured right [69m]) take on new meaning. They convoke,
among other things, images of the national government protecting all of the
citizens of the United States (as Grant did in the Civil War and as the soldiers
have done time and time again) from dangers within and without.

Stamps could also be used to focus Americans' attentions on national issues
or themes. My ideas behind this hypothesis are similar to the ones that I have
already posited in earlier paragraphs. So, I will stop my discussion here and
left the stamps pictured below speak for themselves [70m].